Monday, 14 July 2014

Eden Christian Centre held their first ever outdoor event for "International Day" on Sundy 13th July 2014. The long serving celebration held by the global Apostolic church, commemorates the diverse cultures within their congregations. This year Pastor Bryon Jones of the Ilford based parish, chose to share the day with the local community, to create stronger links with local people and to identify the church as a place of hope, joy and new beginnings.

The day was filled with exciting family activities including, live music and dance, henna art, face painting, funfair, bouncy castle, a quiz, talent competition and free international food - cooked and served by members of the congregation.Hundreds of visitors attended the event throughout the day, which also coincided with the FIFA World Cup final this year. Our BPCA Team provided free Henna Painting and Punjabi outreach. Wilson Chowdhry our Chairman was event organiser and is a member of this local congregation.

The church were joined by Redbridge Enterprise who held a swap shop which enabled local people to exchange unwanted CD's, books, clothes and other items for alternatives. They also provided a treasure hunt, advice on local recycling, a seed planting activity for children and a World Cup badge making activity to coincide with the build up to the final. An exciting penalty shoot out competition was also held at the church car park and the winner won a giant football.

The event had a spiritual dimension too and visitors were invited to receive prayer for healing and other needs. They were also given opportunity to learn more about the Christian faith and the relevance of the church in modern times.

Pastor Bryon Jones said;

"We were so excited about sharing our special day with the local community and were not disappointed, as local people from varied cultures joined us all day for a time of fun and feasting. The event was packed from the start to the very end."

He added;

"We believe the event went some way towards dispelling myths about the Christian faith and highlighted the joy that comes from true faith in Christ. Moreover, it gave us great joy to pray with local people over their individual concerns - we hope now our church has become a more welcoming beacon of hope."

Sunday, 13 July 2014

As for the blasphemy laws, they “are a true instrument of institutional violence and suppression on behalf of the state religion”, conclude Bouvier and Cosadia. Under Article 295 C of the Pakistani
Penal Code, “anyone who desecrates the name of the Prophet Muhammad faces the death penalty.
Members of religious minorities are harassed, tortured by the police or by inmates or guards while in
prison, physically assaulted during trials, and heavily sentenced each year by the judiciary. The
sentences”, as substantive documentation on the matter clearly shows, “are often based on false
accusations and slanderous denunciations. Even Muslims are victims of this fallacious legislation each
year.Thank you for reading this and please know that your sharing, liking and commenting on this post goes a long way in helping to give voice to the persecuted.

All proceeds from the sale of the book support the work of the BPCA. Much of the early sales will be used to support victims of the Peshawar bomb attacks - December 2013.

Wednesday, 9 July 2014

This temporary banner at Eden Christian Centre informs the community of their forthcoming International Day Celebration.

A banner on the Car Park of the Prince of Wales attracts huge attention.

Eden Christian Centre host their first ever outdoor community event termed "International Day" on Sunday 13th September 2014. The date traditionally celebrates the cultural diversity within the Apostolic Church. However, Pastor Bryon Jones who leads the church on Connaught Road, is using the day to create stronger links between the church and local people.The day begins with a service within the main church hall on Connaught Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 1RN. A chance to worship God in prayer, Praise and Worship and a chance to hear His Word.Pastor Bryon said;"We have set this date aside in our Church calendar to remember God's word is for all people irrespective of culture. Moreover Christ spoke of the need to 'Love thy Brother' explaining the bond of brother was extended to all humanity."Following the service form 2pm to 5pm a community event will take place in the car park of the Prince of Wales Pub. This will include; Live music and dance, free international food, World Cup Badge making, Treasure hunt, planting workshop, Children's art workshop, Bouncy castle, funfair, henna and face painting and much more.Banners have today been placed at the Car park and on the church and create a stunning invitation to an event designed to inspire local people.

The day coincides with the final of the football world cup and the church will be holding a penalty-shoot out competition to commemorate this special day. Moreover, they will be joined by Habiba Ahmed of Redbridge Recycling who will hold a treasure hunt and children's activity using recycled material to make World Cup badges. She will also be holding a local swap shop where unwanted items can be exchanged for other used items such as CD's, books and trinkets.

Habiba Ahmed said;

"We are holding a ‘Give and Take – Community Swap Shop’ on Sunday, 13th July 2014. For more details please follow this link".

Wilson Chowdhry of the BPCA is co-ordinating the event for the church and it is hoped we will be holding a Hennah Stall to raise funds for our group. Wilson Chowdhry said;"Eden Christian Centre label themselves as 'Church without walls,' events such as these cement that theme and illustrate the innovative way in which modern churches are interacting with their communities. A bridge building exercise which fosters local cohesion and reinforces the relevancy of Christianity in modern times.

Sunday, 6 July 2014

Excerpt from the targeting of minority 'Others' in Pakistan ( Graphic text)

Security forces, including Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, were implicated in a number of gruesome
murders and disappearances of political activists from nationalist parties and ‘suspected insurgents’.
As an Amnesty International report noted: “Muzaffar Bhutto, a senior member of a Sindhi nationalist
political party in Pakistan, was found dead on 22nd May 2011, after being allegedly abducted by plain-
clothed intelligence agents and police on 25th February 2011. Amnesty International calls for the
killing to be investigated and the perpetrators to be brought to justice. Muzaffar Bhutto was the
General-Secretary of Jeay Sindh Muttaheda Mahaz (JSMM), an ethnic Sindhi nationalist party. He
was found dead on 22nd May in Bukhari village, near Hyderabad city in Sindh province. On 25th
February 2011, he was allegedly abducted by plain-clothed intelligence agents and police in
Hyderabad city, Sindh province. Witnesses said around 20 men in plain clothes came out of unmarked
cars and detained Muzaffar Bhutto at gunpoint. He was not seen again until his dead body was
recovered. His body was reportedly found stuffed in a gunny bag, bearing torture marks with two
bullet wounds, one to the head and one to his chest. The manner of Muzaffar Bhutto’s abduction, and
the dumping and condition of his body fits a consistent and repeated pattern of enforced
disappearances and extrajudicial executions of political activists and suspected insurgents by
Pakistan’s security forces including its intelligence agencies”

Thank you for reading this and please know that your sharing, liking and commenting on this post goes a long way in helping to give voice to the persecuted.

All proceeds from the sale of the book support the work of the BPCA. Much of the early sales will be used to support victims of the Peshawar bomb attacks - December 2013.

Thursday, 3 July 2014

Eden Christian Centre are taking their annual celebration titled International Day into the community this year. The day is set into the Apostolic Church Calendar as a day to celebrate the different cultures and traditions within the church. This year however the Connaught Road based congregation have obtained permission to use the Car Park at the Prince of Wales Pub on Sunday 13th July form 2pm - 7pm, to share fellowship with the wider community.

Activities at the event include Face Painting, Live Music and Dance, board games, free International Food, a bouncy castle and Children's art gazebo. There will also be a community talent competition with prizes and trophies. Any visitors who wish to learn more about the Christian faith or the Eden Christian Centre will also be given opportunity to learn more and a Prayer and healing room will be available.

Pastor Bryon Jones said;

"This day will be a day of great feasting, fun and fellowship with local people . We hope to build bridges with the local community whilst sharing the principles of our faith dispelling any myths held about Christianity and reminding people of the relevance of Christianity in modern society."

He added;

"The majority of activities are free and we encourage local people to come and join us in celebrating the wonders of a multicultural society."

The day coincides with the final of the football world cup and the church will be holding a penalty-shoot out competition in sympathy with this. Moreover, they will be joined by Habiba Ahmed of Redbridge Recycling who will hold a treasure hunt and children's activity using recycled material to make World Cup badges. She will also be holding a local swap shop where unwanted items can be exchanged for other used items such as CD's, books and trinkets.

We
are holding a ‘Give and Take – Community Swap Shop’ on Sunday, 13th July
2014. For more details please follow this link:

Sunday, 29 June 2014

With a population estimated at over 187 million and as the fifth most populous country in the world and the second most populous country with a Muslim majority Pakistan has been experiencing a major human rights crisis in recent years.
Minority Rights Group International, in its annual State of the World’s Minorities reports for both 2007 and 2008, for example, placed Pakistan in the top ten (out of nearly 200 states) of its lists of states violating minority rights. “The recent wave of intolerance toward minorities”, Ahmed Rashid has argued, “is a sign of the rapid deterioration of the very idea of Pakistan. Many Pakistanis have forgotten that when Muhammad Ali Jinnah founded Pakistan in 1947, it was not partitioned from India to become an Islamic state. It was conceived as a democratic state for Muslims and all minorities, who could live together and worship freely. The white stripe down the side of Pakistan’s green flag represents those minorities, the non-Muslims, who would be forever protected and treated as equal citizens by the majority-Muslim population.

The flag itself illustrates their presence, and is a commitment to their survival. [But] the recent mayhem in the country has been the most disturbing since 1947, because it totally repudiates those founding principles” sharp contrast to the symbolism reflected on the Pakistani flag”. In 2011, Minority Rights Group International “ranked Pakistan as the sixth-most-dangerous country in the world for minorities”, with “Ahmadiyya, Balochis, Hindus, Mohajirs, Pashtun, Sindhis, other religious minorities” listed as those most under threat.

Thank you for reading this and please know that your sharing, liking and commenting on this post goes a long way in helping to give voice to the persecuted.

All proceeds from the sale of the book support the work of the BPCA. Much of the early sales will be used to support victims of the Peshawar bomb attacks - December 2013.

Sunday, 22 June 2014

In this highly politicised context in which human rights violations against the ‘minority Other’ have been taking place in Pakistan, and many asylum seekers and human rights campaigners have been – and are being – targeted for deportation and/or criminalisation in the UK for exposing the injustices
and targeting that befalls the ‘minority Other’, we hope that concerned members of parliament, the
public, anti-deportation campaigners, asylum seekers appealing their deportation notices, human
rights organisations and campaigners, policy makers, lawyers, students, academics and church and
other faith and non-faith groups will find this report of use and reflect upon its findings. Selective
quotations from key reports, books and articles have been used, and extensive referencing of sources
has been used, particularly in Chapters 2 and 3, so that asylum seekers and anti-deportation
campaigners and lawyers, concerned parliamentarians, as well as human rights organisations, concerned faith and non-faith groups and other campaign groups, in particular, can refer to them in
relevant case-work, parliamentary and campaign work. Genocide scholars and Genocide Prevention campaigning organisations (of which there are many), together with investigative journalists, will hopefully also find this report of relevance to their work.

Thank you for reading this and please know that your sharing, liking and commenting on this post goes a long way in helping to give voice to the persecuted.

All proceeds from the sale of the book support the work of the BPCA. Much of the early sales will be used to support victims of the Peshawar bomb attacks - December 2013.

PEOPLE
fleeing Mosul following the attacks by ISIS militants are to receive emergency
help from Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, amid growing signs that
the country is lurching towards civil war.

The
grant of €100,000 will provide food and shelter for many of the 3,000
Christians who poured into the mainly Christian villages in the Nineveh Plains
outside Mosul.

They
fled in the wake of the city’s capture by Wahhabi militants the Islamic State
of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

The
news comes as the charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians was
told by Auxiliary Chaldean (Catholic) Bishop Saad Sirop Hanna of Baghdad that
civil war would spell “the end…, especially for us Christians”.

“If
the various different opposing internal parties do not succeed in finding an
agreement, then we must expect the worst.

“Another
war would mean the end, especially for us Christians.”

Echoing
concerns about international military intervention made on Monday (16th
June) by Latin-rite Catholic Archbishop Jean Sleiman of Baghdad, Bishop Sirop
called for diplomatic pressure – especially from the USA – to reach an accord
between the leaders of Iraq, Sunni and Shi‘a in particular.

He
said: “More than a week has passed since the invasion of Mosul by… ISIS and
still there is no common political plan.

“Only
an Iraq based on consent and reconciliation within can react to external
dangers. Shi‘as and Sunnis have to understand that nothing will be resolved by
violence.”

The
bishop said that the present crisis in Iraq is a direct consequence of the war
of 2003 and of the inefficiency of the new democratic system which, he added:
“cannot function if there is no true reconciliation”.

Describing
an upsurge of people requesting Baptismal certificates to enable them to leave
the capital, the bishop said the young in particular were anxious to flee.

In
response to the exodus taking place in the Mosul area, Chaldean (Catholic)
Archbishop Amel Nona of Mosul is co-ordinating ACN’s emergency relief project.

The
archbishop fled the city 10 days ago for the nearby Christian village of Tal
Kayf, and began mounting a relief operation amid reports that 500,000 people
were on the move.

Speaking
to ACN, he explained that schools, church halls and abandoned houses had been
opened up to receive displaced people, who left everything behind in Mosul.

The
archbishop said that, although some Christians had returned to Mosul since last
week’s ISIS invasion, most were too afraid to go back.

ISIS’s
attack on Mosul began two weeks ago and, in its wake, half the population fled,
including the city’s last remaining Christians, who as recently as 2003
numbered 35,000.

Archbishop
Nona added that it was highly “uncertain whether all of the families will be
able to return to Mosul”.

ACN’s
Projects Director Regina Lynch said: “We are very close to this Church. This
never-ending suffering is like an open wound for us.

“More
than ever, the Christians of Iraq need to know that the Christians in the rest
of the world are not leaving them alone, but are praying for them and are also
supporting them as much as they can.”

The
charity’s help for displaced Iraqis comes on top of ACN’s ongoing emergency aid
for Christians and others fleeing violence and persecution in neighbouring
Syria, with important help also despatched to Lebanon and Jordan, where
millions of refugees have gone.

Saturday, 14 June 2014

A Pakistani Christian politician, an MPA in the Balochistan Provincial Assembly Mr Handery Masih, was assassinated outside his home by his own bodyguard today. He died of his injuries in hospital shortly after. His nephew was also injured in the assault by bodyguard Ghulam Mohi-ud-din, according to reports from the scene.

The exact motivation for the attack is unknown, but it comes after a moderate Muslim governor was assassinated several years ago by his own bodyguard for opposing the blasphemy laws, and the assassination of Pakistan's most senior Christian politician, Federal Government minister Bhatti soon after over the same cause.

BPCA chairman Mr Wilson Chowdhry said 'I am saddened, but not surprised, to hear that another Christian politician has been gunned down in Pakistan. We may not know the precise reason, but this is doubtless yet another manifestation of the extreme anti-Christian bigotry that pervades Pakistani society and culture as a whole, an state of extreme moral bankruptcy. I join with Christian politicians in Pakistan to hold the government to account for allowing such a situation to develop, and not doing nearly enough to uphold basic principles of human rights when it comes to Christians and other minorities in Pakistan'.

Sunday, 8 June 2014

Some lawyers groups are, to all intents and purposes, Muslim extremist pressure groups in themselves, whom police are often afraid to go against, as witnessed in last year’s case of the 12 year old Shazia Bashir, a Christian girl who was raped, beaten and tortured to death by her employer, a supreme court advocate. The police covered up the cause of death by falsifying the autopsy until the family ordered a second autopsy, and the police refused point blank to accept a report about the murder.

Thank you for reading this and please know that your sharing, liking and commenting on this post goes a long way in helping to give voice to the persecuted.

All proceeds from the sale of the book support the work of the BPCA. Much of the early sales will be used to support victims of the Peshawar bomb attacks - December 2013.

Today (Friday 6th June 2014) Christians of all diversities and humanitarians from other Minority Groups met outside the Sudanese Embassy and demanded freedom and justice for Meriam Ibrahim. People were drawn to the protest event after hearing the tragic story of the Christian Sudanese doctor who was sentenced to death and to 100 lashes for apostasy, that is converting from Islam to Christianity, and for adultery, that is marrying a man who is not a Muslim. Despite Meriam being brought up by her mother as a Christian.

Apparently Mrs Ibrahim counts as Muslim according to Sudanese law because her father was Muslim. Therefore law courts have ruled that her marriage is illegal.

Meriam has just given birth to a daughter in prison and has a 2-year-old son by her husband, Daniel Wani. She has continually refused to renounce Christianity and her adherrance to her faith has resulted in the Court ruling that she must stay in prison for two years to nurse her baby. After this grace period she will then be executed. It is not known when the flogging is scheduled.

The event was organised by the BPCA in partnership with Christian Voice. Stephen Green National Director of Christian Voice, said;

"We call on President Omar al Bashir to direct the Sudanese Courts and Government to drop all charges and release Meriam Ibrahim immediately, to allow freedom to convert to Christianity in law and to guarantee the safety of Christians and the ancient Sudanese Church."

Wilson Chowdhry Chairman of the BPCA said;

"Christian persecution in the Islamic world has reached unprecedented levels. Extremist ideology has been endorsed by fanatical religious leaders and knitted into the fabric of their societies, through stigmatised national curriculum within these intolerant states. This has bred hatred towards minorities and culminated in alienation and conflict."

He added;

"Christians have now become the most persecuted faith adherents in the world. Moreover, the affect of these acts of violence and oppression has been an increase in the societal differences in our own communities. Fascist groups in the UK and other western countries have gained support due to the misunderstandings that these acts of aggression foster in our own communities."

Lyn Julius, leader of HARIF a group that represents Middle Eastern and North African Jews, said;

"I was moved by the suffering of innocent Meriam Ibrahim. There was once two million Jews in the Middle East and North Africa, now only around 400,000 remain. The conditions faced by minorities living in the region has reached a nadir."A petition was signed by all attendees at the vigil. However despite his promise the Sudanese Ambassador failed to receive the petition, opting for it to be left at the reception area.

People gathered opposite the Sudan Embassy from 2pm.

Banners contained biblical passages and demanded freedom for Meriam.

Rev Stephen Green spoke out for Meriam

We walked across to the Embassy led by a bagpiper.

The walk to the Embassy created a stir amongst Embassy staff.

A former military bagpiper led the way.

Amazing Grace was played and sung.

A prayer was said before the Sudan Embassy.

The Sudan Embassy called the Police because our singing Amazing Grace caused offence.

Minority representatives unite against hatred

The protest moved to the steps of the Sudanese Embassy.

A bag piper led Christians in singing Amazing Grace.

This local Brazilian Christian was working at a construction project he was moved by the resolve of UK Christians standing up for the oppressed.

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